The Best Books You're (Probably) Not Reading, Part 4. The books of John Green

The books of John Green. What more can be said? Quite a bit actually. I know that these books have all been best sellers, but they don't seem to move off the shelves the way I think they should. Where else can you find a character who is a certified genius, working on an exact mathmatical formula as to why his 17 former girlfriends, all name Katherine, have broken up with him. Or a girl who is notorious for being wild, yet still popular with both students and teachers who decides to disapear after taking her former best friend and neighbor on an insane night to take revenge on an ex-boyfriend. Sound complicated? They are. John Green's characters are all incredibly complicated, flawed people, who are all the more realistic for it. The books are surprisingly (or not that surprising considering John Green's original vocation) pretty clean. They are meant for an older teen audience. These books are not dumbed down but instead are very intelligent insights into the life of teens. Did I mention that his first book Looking for Alaska won the Printz Award and his second book An Abundance of Katherines was nominated for the Printz?

Something else to say about John Green is his website nerdfighters.com. He and his brother created this website with forums, blogs, videos, etc. to become " a place where nerds gather and play. We fight to increase awesome and decrease suck. What more is there?" The nerdfighters often come together for community service projects and just recently organized a group to send to Haiti to help in relief efforts. Check out the books of John Green and also the website.